Rhetoric in an Organizational Society

Book excerpt: What does it mean to speak with a collective voice? This is the central question addressed in Rhetoric in an Organizational Society. The author explains how in advanced industrial society many of the messages that individuals see and hear are associated with organizations of great size, resources, and power. Organizational messages take the forms of advertising, public relations, issue advocacy, doctrine, annual reports, policy statements, newsletters, declarations, and so forth. However, given an accustomed emphasis on the individual, citizens and scholars alike have difficulty interpreting messages that represent collectiveness.